My View: Bring everyone to transformation table

Thursday

Mar 6, 2014 at 4:30 PM

Jesus gave us the tools — revolutionary thinking and acting. However, we don’t use them to honor the poor — especially those who are poor in spirit, outsiders. Jesus embraced them. He empowered them. He resisted being a charismatic political general.

Constantine, 300 years later, wrangled the unruly extremely diverse gaggle of Christians into one group, compelling them to agree on one set of writings — our Bible. Everyone in the “Holy Roman Empire” burned the other gospels. Christians were pacifists. They refused to be soldiers. Constantine’s imperial army used shields emblazoned with a cross.

Even today, the Messiah’s “Lord of Lords, King of Kings,” misses Jesus’ point: peacemaking, not peacekeeping. Not riches. Not fighting wars. Agape.

The modern day secular prophet Arnold Mindell wrote “Sitting in the Fire,” and “The Deep Democracy of Open Forums.” He talks about mainstream people — like you, dear reader. And he talks about those who aren’t mainstream like Jesus’ outsiders. They know they have no voice, no power.

Mindell’s approach utilizes large gatherings, including the unruly, to talk about difficult things. It’s messy. The group gains awareness and wisdom. Everyone’s feelings and needs are heard. Those with no status, rank, or power AND the mainstream folks all have a say! It’s like magic. It’s not neat. It works.

Taking this into account, let’s all apply these principles to Transform Rockford. We’ve been “visioning.” At Henrietta Head Start, about 40 mainstream people were present. One was a grandmother of a Head Start child.

I’ve assembled a group. We’re asking, how can we inspire this group of top-gun executives and good ole’ boys who were there from the beginning? How can we get Transform Rockford to open up about visioning, planning and implementation so that those outside the mainstream, those never taken seriously, will truly co-lead our region’s transformation? Can we really halt the process and redo visioning to include everyone?

Woodward’s culture is an engineering hierarchy. Tom Gendron and other traditional community leaders initiated Transform Rockford. I applaud this heroic effort.

And yet, even the most well-intentioned “social engineering” often fails. Even President Johnson’s war on poverty — that bit of social engineering — destroyed millions of intact families through the well-intentioned Aid for Families with Dependent Children.

“Here’s money for you and your kids — just you and the kids. No man. Men are breadwinners. If he’s there — no money.”

Back to Rockford’s transformation. I know, you can’t NOT do social engineering. Public policy is social engineering. Well, let’s at least include everyone.

People who aren’t mainstream are missing. How will they freely choose to join? Maybe they know intuitively that if they come, their visioning won’t be reflected in the final collection of baskets of Transform dollars. At one visioning event several people envisioned inclusion, integration and equity. The basket representing those visions was labeled something like “feel good about ourselves.” The vision had been lost. People couldn’t vote their passion.

I love visioning and have volunteered to help lead the meetings. And I know that if that’s all we do, we’ll totally miss hearing the voices of the people who aren’t mainstream. We need different processes. We need to realize Mike Schablaske’s vision: “Everyone — EVERYONE” at the table!

Harlan Johnson, a community therapist, is on the board of directors of the European American Lutheran Association, NAACP, and Come Together Rockford (The Northern Illinois Institute for the Healing of Racism.)